The Huffy Corporation is an American manufacturer of inexpensive mass-market bicycles. It was founded in 1887 when George P. Huffman purchased the Davis Sewing Machine Company and moved its factory to Dayton, Ohio. Seven years later, in 1894, Huffman adapted the factory to manufacture their well-known line of Huffy bicycles. In 1949, Huffy developed the Huffy Convertible, a children's bicycle with rear training wheels. The Convertible revolutionized the children's bicycle market and was the first Huffy bicycle to be marketed under the Huffy brand name. In 1953, a Huffy logo was created and Huffy decided to switch all of its bicycles to the new Huffy brand name. In 1970, the Huffy Corporation was founded as an umbrella company to house Huffy Bicycles as well as Huffy's emerging sporting goods product lines. In 1976, Huffy became the number one seller of U.S. bicycles, out performing even Schwinn Bicycles. Huffy Sports is now a division of Russell Corporation and has moved its bicycle manufacturing to China. Huffy bicycles were last manufactured in the United States in 1999. In August of 2004, Huffy announced that a review of its financial statements had revealed accounting irregularities. As a result, the price of Huffy stock declined by 40 percent and the New York Stock Exchange suspended the trading of Huffy. Finally, on October 20 of 2004, Huffy announced the Huffy Corporation and all of its United States and Canadian subsidiaries would file for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Still in business today, in 2006 Huffy announced the sale of the company's 100 millionth bicycle!
MICARGI BICYCLES:
Micargi Industries, Inc. has been manufacturing bicycles, parts and accessories since 1994. Like most all new bicycle company's of today, Micargi's are built in China. Their company goal: "To offer quality bicycles at affordable prices!" Today, Micargi employs over 500 people and has a production capacity of over 500,000 bicycles per year. In 1996, the company went international and opened their first overseas office and warehouse in Los Angeles, California. Micargi now produces many different models, including; beach cruisers, tandem's and mountain bikes. SoCalBicycles is a proud Micargi Bicycle dealer. See their bicycles here: Micargi's Beach Cruisers.
MURRAY BICYCLES:
Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company was founded in 1919 to produce fenders, gas tanks, and other automotive parts. The company started production in Cleveland, Ohio, but later moved to Brentwood, Tennessee. Murray became a well-known American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles and featured one-piece steel crank-sets and welded steel tubing, at the time characteristic of low priced American bikes. Murray's were commonly sold in department stores and discount chains rather than bicycle shops. For many years the company produced bicycles for Sears, Roebuck and Company, under the Sears name. Murray also produced and sold bicycles under their own brand name. The Murray company continued building bicycles well into the 1980's however in 1986, Murray was purchased by Tomkins plc of Great Britain. A few years later in 2000, Summersong Investment, a Chinese-backed company bought Murray. In 2004 the company filed bankruptcy, at which point the engine manufacture Briggs & Stratton acquired the Murray brand name. No longer producing bicycles, you'll now see the Murray name on lawn equipment under the Briggs & Stratton company name.
NISHIKI BICYCLES:
Nishiki is a brand name of bicycles originally produced at the Kawamura factory in Kobe, Japan. The upper line bicycles exported by this company to Europe, USA and Canada were called Nishiki while simpler bicycles for the home (Japanese) market were sold as Kawamura. What happened in the U.S. by the end of the 70s was that the Nishiki importers, West Coast Cycles, registered the brand name Nishiki in the United States before Kawamura had a sense to do so. Ironically, this didn't lead to any legal actions by Nishiki as the Japanese were afraid to anger an important customer. So for the rest of the 80s the Americans continued to sell Nishiki's produced by Kawamura. By 1989 the then owner of the brand in the United States, Derby Cycles (now Raleigh Cycles Ltd.), started to produce their own models outside Japan without any cooperation with Kawamura. Derby even used the same model names as on the Kawamura built bicycles. Nishiki Europe is a group of distributors / agents in Europe formed to develop Nishiki models in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Estonia. Nishiki Europe models are produced in Taiwan or Holland, Finland and Sweden for local markets. These bicycles were exported to Europe, Canada and the United States, with bicycles produced for the Japanese market using the brand name 'Kawamura'. The brand name was retired by Derby in 2001 in North America. However, Nishiki Europe, a group of European distributors, still exists and sells models in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia. These bicycles are produced in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.
ROSS BICYCLES:
Ross was founded in 1940 as the "Ross Galvanizing Works." It was located in Brooklyn, New York near the Brooklyn Navy Yards. During World War II, Ross had extensive contracts with the U.S. Government to coat (galvanize) the bottom of ships. When the war ended, at the suggestion of Sherwood Ross and his brother in-law Samuel Wilkens the company switched to the manufacturing of wheeled goods including bicycles, tricycles, wheel chairs, lawn mowers and roller skates. They were soon incorporated as the "Chain Bike Corporation" in 1946. Albert Ross was the company President with Sam Wilkens holding down the position of VP and Sales Manager.
In the 1950's the Ross company moved its manufacturing plant to Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York and by the late 50's solely manufactured bikes and trikes as they became the third largest domestic producer of bicycles behind Schwinn and Huffy. Upon Albert Ross' retirement in 1969 the company ownership was turned over in equal shares to Albert's son Sherwood B. Ross and daughter Teddy. A few years later in the early 70's Ross moved again, this time to a new and larger facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but they continued to operate the business from the Rockaway Beach office. Meanwhile, former Ross Plant Manager, Willie Ehrlich became the Vice President.
During the two oil crises of 1973 and 1979 the company worked around the clock in three shifts and turned out over 1 million bicycles in each of those high-producing years. Ross Bicycles filed for a patent in May of 1977. The patent was for their unique fork-end construction with a downwardly facing axle receiver. Just one year later the patent was issued. In 1980, Sherwood Ross bought out his sister and remained the sole company owner. This was also the year Ross' high-end "Signature series" bikes, which featured Cro-Mo tubing and Shimano 600 components, was launched. Tom Kellogg was placed in charge of the new division. The company was re-incorporated in May of 1982 as "Ross Bicycles, Incorporated." Gone was the former "Chain Bike Corporation."
Ross sued East Coast Cycles and Imports, Inc. for trademark infringement in 1984. The defendant had designed and marketed a Taiwanese import bike called the "Boss Cruiser" which Ross said was a knockoff of, not only their trademark but their Diamond Cruiser bike, as well. The court did not agree with either assertion and dismissed the case. The case proved costly as Ross had to pay all court costs and legal fees, including those of the defendant. Following a motorcycle accident Tom Kellogg left Ross and founded his own company—"Spectrum Cycles." Ross quickly placed Jim Redcay in charge of their "Signature division." Kellogg struck again when he lured master frame builder Jeff Duser away from Ross, another hard blow to the company.
By this time, Ross, who had manufactured and sold over ten million bicycles, had already been feeling the squeeze from foreign imports. The company was simply unable to compete with bicycles from the Far East made with very cheap labor. For a short time the company began to use cheaper components on its lower end products. Finally, it tried to stay solvent by shifting its bicycle manufacturing to leased factories in Taiwan (Ross Import Division) and using the Allentown (PA.) facility to fulfill government contracts, for ammo boxes. However this soon came to a tragic end. Sherwood Ross was reportedly accustomed to a lavish lifestyle and decided not to make the restrictive budget management decisions that might have kept the company afloat a bit longer. By the end of 1987, Ross halted all of their bicycle manufacturing and in 1989 the company went bankrupt. The name "Ross" was eventually purchased out of Bankruptcy Court by Rand Cycle of Farmingdale, New York. As part of the name purchase agreement, Sherwood B. Ross was employed by Rand as a consultant. But that too ended 5 years later. Rand never sunk enough money into marketing the Ross name and although they still own it, they are not actively pursuing Ross sales.
SCHWINN BICYCLES:
The Schwinn Bicycle Company was founded by Ignaz Schwinn in 1860. The Chicago, Illinois, based company grew to become the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles through most of the 20th century. Ignaz Schwinn was born in Germany in 1860, and emigrated to the United States in 1891. In 1895, with the financial backing of fellow German-American Adolph Arnold, he started the "Arnold, Schwinn Bicycle Company." Being known as the best-made American bicycle would not alone have satisfied founder Ignaz Schwinn. Neither was it enough for son F.W. nor grandson Frank V. (for Valentine) Schwinn, who took over the company following F.W.'s death in 1963. About 1952, F.W. added marketing whiz Ray Burch, then General Manager Bill Stoeffhaas, and also design supervisor Al Fritz to the management team. Most companies sold bikes in bulk to department stores, who in turn sold them with the label of a store brand. Except for the B.F. Goodrich tire stores, Schwinn did away with this practice in 1950 and insisted on the Schwinn brand and guarantee appearing on all their products. Their distributors however long retained the right to send Schwinn's to whichever hardware store, toy store, or bicycle shops wanted to carry them. In the 1950s and 1960s, Schwinn cultivated a loyal cadre of bicycle retailers dedicated to selling mostly, if not all, Schwinn bicycles. Through the 1960s, Schwinn also kept up with changes in consumer demand. They were quick to pick up on the West Coast phenomenon of attaching motorcycle-like "high-rider" handlebars and long "banana seats" to small-frame bikes. Calling their model of such a bike the Sting Ray, Schwinn dominated the market. When teen and adult riders looked for models more sleek than the Black Phantom, which was the nation's most-wanted bicycle in the 1950s, Schwinn responded with the Varsity and Continental ten-speed "racing" bikes which topped sales as well. During this bicycle boom, annual national sales of bicycles had briefly topped one million units.
The mini-boom of the 1960s accelerated in 1970, with U.S. bicycle sales doubling over the next two years. While everyone's profits soared, and Schwinn went on to record sales of over 1.5 million bicycles in 1974, much of the growth was in lighter weight European and Asian imports. Schwinn's outdated factories, and their corporate thinking as well, was wedded to heavy, steel, welded frames. Meanwhile, younger buyers were becoming more interested in lighter frames composed of new alloys. Schwinn did offer a series of lightweight models including the hand built fillet-brazed Schwinn Superior (in the early 1970's) from 1938 to 1978, and the top of the line Schwinn Paramount from 1938 to 1994. The problem was that the Paramount's carried a high price for those who wanted the very best, so they were sold in small numbers. Schwinn did a poor job of marketing those fillet built bikes and ended up missing the train on the lightweight craze. In the mid-1970s, Schwinn took the radical step of allowing some of their dealers to sell imported brands, and even started to put their own label on a line of Japanese imports they marketed.
By the early 1980s, a fourth generation Schwinn, Edward R. Jr., was in charge. He favored slick new managers with M.B.A.'s over ex-mechanics, alienating the management team he inherited. The Chicago plant voted to affiliate with the United Auto Workers in 1980. This move, plus the decaying condition of the 80-year-old facility, led Schwinn to move operations to Greenville, Mississippi. Profits turned quickly to large losses, and creditors, including those who had financed the ill-advised relocation, were impatient. Schwinn staved off bankruptcy for a few years with some clever maneuvering. Even more effectively, the company began to import bikes from Taiwan as well as Japan. In Taiwan they dealt with Giant Bicycles, gradually increasing total imports to over half a million bicycles a year. Schwinn sales flirted again with the million mark, and the company turned a profit again in the late 1980s. Schwinn now negotiated a better deal with a mainland Chinese upstart firm, China Bicycle Co. Schwinn was forced to tighten its operations and closed the Mississippi plant. They also established company-operated shops, which were at first successful but alienated the independent retailers whose business they threatened. This led to further inroads by both domestic and foreign competitors. A downhill spiral ensued, and after declining many offers from outside buyers, Schwinn went into bankruptcy in 1992. The company and name were bought by Sam Zell's self-described corporate vulture firm Zell / Chilmark Fund in 1993. Zell shortly moved operations to Boulder, Colorado, where the Schwinn name continued to be stamped on a varied line of products. In 1993 Richard Schwinn, great-grandson of Ignaz Schwinn, with business partner Marc Muller, purchased the Schwinn Paramount plant in Waterford, Wisconsin. They founded Waterford Precision Cycles, which is still in operation today. As of 2003 they employed 18 workers building custom, ultra-lightweight bicycles.
In 2001, Schwinn was purchased at a bankruptcy auction by Pacific Cycle, a company known for mass-market brands. In 2004 Pacific Cycle was, in turn, acquired by Dorel Industries. Schwinn branded bicycles are now being sold in discount stores. Higher quality Schwinn bicycles, however, are still being sold exclusively at specialty bike shops.
TORKER BICYCLES:
The name "Torker" was created by Johnson Engineering of Fullerton, California, in 1977, as it was used for a BMX bike frame. Sponsored by Torker Bicycles, young BMX rider Bob Haro produced the first "Haro" bicycles under the Torker name. But in 1982, Torker rejected Haro when he introduced his own line of BMX racing pants. Before the year was out, the Torker Bicycle Company went bankrupt. Torker was quickly purchased by "Seattle Bike Supply" based in Kent, Washington. Meanwhile, in 1993, Bob Haro founded his own company, "Haro Design, Inc.," now the "Haro Bicycle Corporation." As the Torker product line expanded to include beach cruisers, tandem bikes and even unicycles, "Readers Digest" nominated Torker unicycles as "America's 100 Best" for 2006. "Seattle Magazine," in December of 2006 awarded Torker Bicycles "Best of 2006."
